1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measuring device for immunochromatography test piece.
2. Related Background Art
An immunochromatography test piece is a test piece preliminarily coated with a bandlike coating of an antibody (or antigen) which brings about an antigen-antibody reaction with an antigen (or antibody) in analyte, at a specific location of the test piece. When the antigen (or antibody) in analyte labeled with a dye is developed to the aforementioned specific location by a developing solution, the antigen (or antibody) in analyte undergoes the antigen-antibody reaction with the bandlike coating of the antigen (or antibody) to be trapped, forming a colored line of color by the dye at the specific location. With the immunochromatography test piece of this type, the amount of the antigen (or antibody) in analyte can be quantitatively determined by optically measuring the color intensity of the colored line thus formed, by means of a measuring device.
As a device for measuring the color intensity of the test piece such as the immunochromatography test piece, there is a known measuring device configured to irradiate measurement light of a beam section extending in a direction (a direction parallel to the colored line) perpendicular to the sample development direction on the immunochromatography test piece (the moving direction of the antigen or antibody on the immunochromatography test piece) and to detect reflected light from the immunochromatography test piece under irradiation with the measurement light (e.g., cf. Patent Document 1). The measuring device described in this Patent Document 1 is equipped with a photodetector which is located at an obliquely upward position in an anterior direction to receive forward reflected light with respect to the sample development direction or at an obliquely upward position in a posterior direction to receive backward reflected light with respect to the sample development direction, and detects the reflected light from the immunochromatography test piece.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-326191